Corey Mitchell is a true crime author who graduated from The University of Texas and now lives in San Antonio.
His latest offering is Murdered Innocents, a paperback that tells the story of the 1991 yogurt shop murders.
On Dec. 6, 1991, Amy Ayers, Eliza Thomas, and sisters Sarah and Jennifer Harbison were all killed in a North Austin "I Can't Believe It's Yogurt!" shop.
The case has gone down in history as one of Austin's most notorious crimes.
In 1999, four suspects were arrested. There were two convictions in the case: Robert Springsteen IV was sentenced to death. Michael Scott was sentenced to life. Maurice Pierce, the accused ringleader, was released for lack of evidence. All charges were dropped against Forrest Welborn.
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Yogurt shop book
Watch the complete interview with Corey Mitchell.
 
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Mitchell will be at BookPeople on Saturday at 4 p.m. for a book signing.
For more on the yogurt shop murders, visit news8austin.com's Yogurt Shop Trial Information Page.
News 8 Austin’s Erica Riggins spoke with Mitchell about his book, the only one written about this case.
Q: What made you so interested in this case that you decided to write a book about it?
A: I graduated here from The University of Texas in May of 1992, which was just six months after the yogurt shop murders. So, when the murders happened I obviously followed them constantly wanting to know what happened to these girls, who was responsible for killing them and it just became such a big mystery because no one could find the killers. And over time, I eventually moved from Austin, I tried to keep up with it … And eventually I moved to California. Well, in 1999 that’s when the four boys were arrested and I actually heard about it in Los Angeles … It was something I really wanted to go and find out about it … I wrote one of them [suspects] and from that point I got a response from him and his wife and they were very interested in talking about what happened.
Q: Some people question the verdicts in the case. After your research, do you believe they're guilty?
A: Some people from Mexico were believed to be serious suspects in the case and it turned out that they had actually been beaten in Mexican prisons … A lot of people out of the blue just confessed … Sometimes people just do that just to get noticed … And then in 1999 when Springsteen and Scott and the other two gentlemen surfaced, that’s when everything really changed in this case.
Q: What do you want people, particularly Austinites, to take away from your book?
A: Just that this can happen anywhere. Austin is just the greatest town, I think, in the country … clean and good living. And you think low crime rates and you have to be aware of what’s going on all the time. You can’t take anything for granted. And that something like this can really destroy a town and it almost destroyed Austin. But Austin was able to pick itself back up, I think, because of the victims’ families. They really stood up and made a difference.
Q: You're donating some of the proceeds from sales of the book to a non-profit, tell us about the group.
A: It’s called SAJE. It is the organization run by Barbara Ayres Wilson, who is the mother of two of the victims, Jennifer and Sarah Harbison. And its basically a group whose objective is to help create a safe work environment.
